In Memory of Mary
Mary
It’s summertime here in Bristol. The sun has been shining long into the evenings outside the darkness of the Human Planet edit suites. Occasional rainstorms break the warm afternoons and mean that we get to complain about the British weather in normal style. Time rolls on and the production too. I have finally unpacked my battered old bag, put my thermal socks in storage and packed the mosquito repellent away for a while. No more Arctic or Amazon travels are on the summer horizon.
In the midst of this summertime resettlement, a message appears in my inbox. It’s from Patrice, the Canadian fixer who worked with us last year when we filmed in a small Arctic community in Quebec. The news of his message casts a cold darkness about me that pushes the summer sun behind clouds. We filmed with a group of people who took us into a beautiful and dangerous world beneath the sea-ice and into the realm of great sea-tides and human daring. It stands out as one of the most extraordinary experiences of my time on Human Planet. I remember the fast moving hands of Mary and Attituq as they gathered food hidden under the sea-ice, their breath steaming in the warm chambers. Above on the surface, winds blew and chilled the temperature to below minus thirty. Lukasi, the old man who was our local guide, joked that under the ice was his Little Florida, a haven from the sharp-edged cold of the Arctic winter. Attituq, Mary and he built us an igloo to shelter from the winds and snow and explained that this was how they had grown up and been taught to survive in the Arctic, accustomed to the biting chill of the mornings. I remember the stories that Lukasi told in the igloo, with Mary and Attituq laughing out loud as they ate together. Lukasi entertained everyone with his tales of close encounters with polar bears, nose to nose. Outside the igloo, as I lay watching the scene from a small hole in the wall, my body ached from the cold as the Northern Lights swirled about my head, fluorescent green against the dark black expanse of the heavens.
The Arctic Landscape
The protective igloo
Music Planet
by Roger Short, Producer, BBC Radio 3
The Music Planet team – engineer James Birtwistle, Andy Kershaw and producer Roger Short – look at the wrong camera while on the job in Papua New Guinea
Yes indeed, as Andy Kershaw tells us on his promo video, filmed recently in Papua New Guinea, he and Lucy Duran are currently travelling the globe for a new eight-part series of world music programmes. Music Planet will be a companion series for BBC One’s major new natural history project Human Planet, presenting the music of some of the cultures featured in the TV series.
As I write, Andy is on his way to Thailand, there to join producer James Parkin and engineer James Birtwistle for a trip that includes Laos and Burma; tomorrow Lucy Duran and I, with engineer Martin Appleby, head off on a rather shorter haul to Galicia in northern Spain – this is for a feature on how the local traditions are influenced by music from across the sea (and did you know there was a mass migration of Britons buying villas in northern Spain in the sixth century, bringing Celtic culture to that part of the world?).
Andy Kershaw with friends in Papua New Guinea
Just as Human Planet shows how people relate to their landscape and environment, in Music Planet, we’re showing how all this is reflected in the local music. So far Lucy has visited Madagascar, Kenya, Greenland and Mali, and Andy has been to the Solomon Islands as well as Papua New Guinea. There’s plenty more before the series broadcasts early next year. If you’re interested, we’ll let you know how we get on…
The Secret of Pigeon Poo
Just about handling the 40 degree heat
Morocco is a land steeped in a history as rich and as colourful as one of its most prized commodities - leather. We made our way to the ancient city of Fes (or Fez) where men have been tanning leather for over six centuries. This elaborate process has barely changed in those six hundred years and we were lucky enough to be guided through the many processes by Tammy, a young man already immersed in the art.
The Contrasting beauty of the Tannery with the Lime pits in foreground
The Tannery itself is a collection of vats, dedicated to the different processes of tanning animal hides. There is a vast area of vats filled with liquid lime, in which the hides are immersed to soften them. This is an extremely dangerous process and the tanners go about their task with the barest of protection from the skin-burning lime. The crew survived unscathed except for the odd splash but this was enough to make us extremely wary.
Working quickly but carefully in a vat of liquid lime
From here the hides are washed in what can only be described as giant skin washing machines, whose constant drone supplies the tannery’s sound track. The next stage is the part we were especially interested in filming - the process of using pigeon poo to make the hides extremely supple. The droppings from wild pigeons are the only ones our character Tammy uses as they’re guaranteed to have a high level of ammonia, unlike their caged cousins. You see working for the BBC teaches you things you never knew you needed to know!
I have somehow managed to skip trying to describe the smell the Tannery emits… but here goes.. It’s like a thick mist, which is invisible to the eye but apparent to the skin, hair and especially nose of the unwary visitor. Our first day in and our Making Of cameraman, James Aldred, had a few close calls trying to keep his croissants down. All of us were totally taken aback by just how intense the smell was; it can only be described as smelling of rotting flesh with a tinge of sweetness. Oh yeah and add 40 degree heat to that recipe as well.
Renee Godfrey and Robin Cox getting close in on the action
We shot some of the sequence in the Medina; this was a magical experience for me as it felt as if I was going back in time. The Medina in Fes is famous for its many winding narrow streets, the air filled with the smell of exotic spices and the sound of street sellers offering their wares to the haggling masses. Morocco has left a lasting impression on me and given me the urge to explore more foreign and ancient lands; a road trip across North Africa might be on the cards…Any takers?
